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Try this on: a collection of classical records was, for those of a certain age, a way of honoring a body of art that we respected and which also reflected a positive glow onto our self-images of being cultured, hip people. A remembrance of a time before public libraries, when the gentry had the books and shared their largess with those commoners whom they found worthy. Now it could be yours, timeless music, treated with care; not scratched up, passé, or otherwise disposable. So, we built it up with care and devotion, holding on to our collections until some change was forced on us: moving, downsizing, loss of independence, or death. Many holdings went off to other, somewhat younger, collectors, who are now repeating that cycle with even bigger, aggregated collections. We're now into a third or fourth generation for whom this accumulation is possible, now at lower cost in part because there is less demand.

With perspective, we see a lot of the major label catalogs as being contractual obligation product, not really all that historically necessary. Plus, classical produced tons of reissues, attempts to squeeze a little more cash flow out of the back-catalogs, now simply redundant. You can guess what percentage of a random stack of classical albums is likely worth owning: maybe 5%? Probably higher from a good collection, but some you will already own. Even without the new formats, there is just more out there than can be digested.

We're seeing a third wave of classical LPs washing up on a lonely shore, the first being from those who around 1990 'converted' to CD. It promises to be a tsunami. (Followed eventually by an ocean of unwanted CDs.) In my case, my older brother will leave to me his 5 or 6 thousand albums (unless he cleans house), and that would be added to my 4 thousand, crowding our little house, which I already have a hard time justifying. And there's my friend in Syracuse, who has a smaller but very select assemblage, who can't find anybody to take it on. My buddy who runs a very good record store has been choking on classical and doesn't want any more. Meanwhile, my digital holdings are growing, with each addition making the likelihood of any particular LP being played that much lower.

Is it cool to see something talked about on the ARSC list, like the very early stereo recording of The Origin of Fire, and be able to pull it off the shelf and put it on? Yeah, serendipity is what makes having a collection fun. But, it's kind of silly, too. Ray Davies called it plastic-wear. We may love it, but if it's not unique it's just stuff, like all the other crap we've loaded up the planet with.

We built these collections because we could. Ah, the burdens of wealth.

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 10:22 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] NYPL sells the vinyl collection -- I'm serious

Just wondering why there is so much classical to be had.

Is this because:

So much classical has been re-released on CD?

Classical collectors are an older lot and prefer the simplicity of a CD player?

Classical collectors are quicker to adopt new & better sounding formats?

Is classical less collectible than other genres?

Of course all of these questions are certainly arguable.

I'm just wondering.

joe salerno